Outdoor sports and recreation enthusiasts have long sought to bring modern conveniences into their recreational vehicles. One such convenience is the toilet or commode. Due to the confined space and fresh water available in recreational and marine vehicles, toilet systems that are small and require limited water consumption have become very popular.
The tankless toilet system has been widely adopted by the marine and recreational vehicle market. This type of system does not utilize a tank located above the toilet that uses gravity to empty its contents into the toilet bowl in order to flush and clean the bowl. In a tankless toilet system, flushing is accomplished by the activation of a pumping motor or hand pump that forces water into the toilet bowl thereby providing the necessary flushing and cleaning action.
Often the water that is used to flush the tankless toilet is found in nature and contains various amounts of impurities, marine organisms, and particulate matter. Water strainers are used to filter out particulate matter that may clog the pump motor or the water passage ways of the tankless toilet system. Popular strainer systems utilize a screen or mesh filter that is located in the water line supplying the pump motor. Although useful, this inline strainer system is unable to address low purity water and the associated odors and residues it leaves behind.
Toilet bowl sanitizing mechanisms and apparatuses are known in the art. These mechanisms often reside in the toilet and provide a chamber where deodorants and chemicals are able to dissolve in the water passing through the toilet, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,572 filed on Feb. 11, 2000 by Van Der Gaag et al. These systems allow for the addition of chemicals, detergents, disinfectants, soaps, deodorizers, and coloring agents which reduce water odor and fouling of components encountered when using fresh water and salt water from the environment.
Separate water strainer and chemical additive systems offer many disadvantages. They require a greater amount of space, increased spare parts inventories, and the maintenance and cleaning of both systems. Unified water strainer and chemical additive systems are known in the art, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,727 filed on May 15, 1987 by Homan et al. Since many recreational vehicles and marine vessels are originally supplied to the customer without a chemical additive system, the installation of a new system requires further labor and costs to the boat owner. In addition, removing the old assembly from the water line and replacing it with a unified system frequently introduces points of weakness that may break and result in water damage and further repair costs to the marine vessel or recreational vehicle.
What is needed in the art is a unified water straining and chemical additive system for marine vessel and recreational vehicles that is easy to install and simple to operate.
Therefore, a need exists for novel marine and portable toilet deodorizing devices capable of attaching to a wide variety of inline water strainers. There is a further need for an apparatus that is able to removably attach to various commercial inline water filters and strainers providing a mounting point and interface for deodorizing water soluble chemical additives while also providing straining capabilities to water entering a tankless or portable toilet system. Finally, there exists a need for a unified water straining and chemical additive system for marine vessel and recreational vehicles that is easy to install and simple to operate.